Ajax Response is enclosed in XML Prolog and String tag which causes Invalid JSON

spssg2003

I am making an AJAX call to a ASP.NET WebMethod. The webmethod is returning a string in the following format:
{"data":[{"MemberNumber":"1","FirstName":"","LastName":"Patterson ","MiddleName":"","NationalityDesc":"","NationalityRefNbr":0,"Gender":null,"BirthDate":null,"MaritialStatus":null,"MaritialStatusRefNbr":0,"IdentityType":null,"IdentityRefNbr":0,"ParticipantType":null},{"MemberNumber":"","FirstName":"","LastName":"Patterson ","MiddleName":"","NationalityDesc":"","NationalityRefNbr":0,"Gender":null,"BirthDate":null,"MaritialStatus":null,"MaritialStatusRefNbr":0,"IdentityType":null,"IdentityRefNbr":0,"ParticipantType":null}]}

However when I check the XHR Response the JSON text array is enclosed in XML Prolog and a String tag:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<string xmlns="http://tempuri.org/">{"data":[[{"MemberNumber":"" etc.....

</string>

I believe the Prolog and string tag is causing the Invalid JSON. Does anyone know how to prevent .NET from adding the prolog?

spssg2003

FYI the following link helped me solve this issue:
http://datatables.net/forums/discussion/20876/server-side-processing-setting-datatype-to-json#Comment_60508

After setting the contentType to application/json the JSON string returned to the browser was no longer enclosed in XML prolog or string tag.

allan

Good to hear you got it working :-)

Allan